BC Environmental and Occupational Health Research Network

Mapping genes to their function and their role in disease states is one of the grand challenges in modern biology. In a series of recent advances, inroads have been made in disaggregating the genetic architecture of complex diseases by using the genome wide association approach. However, risk-conferring variants detected using this approach have generally only increased disease risk by a small fraction, leaving a large proportion of the genetic and non-genetic variance unaccounted for from a Systems Biology perspective, in line with prevailing theories of the genetic architecture of complex disorders, it is likely that perturbation in other genetic and regulatory elements combined with environmental modulators will also contribute to an increase in risk for disease. This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) will support projects that expand from initial results from genomic studies to identify elements of the larger dynamic networks of molecular elements and their perturbations that will lead to a comprehensive understanding of the molecular pathophysiology of complex diseases.